When “Elvis” opens in theaters Friday, it will resurrect one of the most iconic figures in American music in the biggest, most bedazzled film to ever try to capture the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
And it will propel Austin Butler, an Orange County, California, native best known to this point for playing Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” onto a far bigger stage.
Butler’s is an electric Elvis, not campy nostalgia act, with more Bowie in him than you might expect.
“Elvis,” which director Baz Luhrmann co-scripted, tells the singer's story through Presley’s infamous manager, Col. Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks.